#plus otherwise disabled these days

[clatterbane]

It is sorta fucked up that I am still way more confident in my ability to get by on a very basic daily level in German than in Swedish, when I have been living in Sweden for better than two years now. And I still haven't managed to make it to any German-speaking country in the flesh.

It is, of course, pretty damned complicated. But, I am still having to get darkly amused thinking about this (again).

[elitisim]

. ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁ ⟡ ݁ . ⊹ ₊ ݁.12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS, DAY 7: 7 Swans-A-Swimming. ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁ ⟡ ݁ . ⊹ ₊

Today's gift is for the simmies who's ideal "white Christmas" involves luxurious white sand beaches instead of dreary instead of winter snowfalls! Day 7 of [ELITISIM'S 12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS ADVENT EXTRAVAGANZA!] is all about swimwear sets for the whole family*!**(except for teens and elders because genuinely who cares about those life states tbh.)

Yep, So for both genders of each age state (toddler, child, and adult) you're getting at least 3 items for each (plus a handful of accessories and extras because you guys know I'm excessive). That's WAY more than 7 items because atp the day numbers are more suggestions than hard and fast rules.

None of this is my original work! All mesh and texture credit goes to the original creators: @backtrack-cc, @darte77, @daisypixelss, @gorillax3-cc, @amelylinaa, @ooobsooo, @MysteriousOo, @christopher067,

Everything has custom thumbnails, Lods and Morphs.

Includes a couple extra accessories that aren't pictured in the gifs. But they are in the stills under the cut.

Static preview pictures, and download links for everything is under the cut.

MOST of these clothes are from before I figured out my new actually decent decimation style, so they're pretty high poly, sorry.

[DOWNLOAD MERGED]

[DOWNLOAD UNMERGED]

[PICK AND CHOOSE]

tagging: @pis3update, @kpccfinds, @xto3conversionsfinds

YA MALES

Gorillax3 - Beach Board Shorts

Original Here!

Bottom for YA-Adult Males

Categories: Everyday, Swim, Sleep, Athletic

4.5k poly

Fully Recolorable - 4 Channels

Includes all LODS, Morphs, and Custom Thumbnails

[DOWNLOAD]

Ooboosoo - Kkbasic set 21 Top and Bottom

Original Here!

Top and Bottom for YA-Adult Males

Categories: Everyday, Swim, Sleep, Athletic

4.5k poly for bottom // 4.7k poly for top

Fully Recolorable - 4 Channels

Includes all LODS, Morphs, and Custom Thumbnails

[DOWNLOAD TOP] [DOWNLOAD BOTTOM]

Nucrests - Oceanfront Cap

Original Here!

Hat for Teen ➤ Elder Males & Females

Located in Glasses Category

Categories: Everyday, Swim, Athletic

1.5k poly

Fully Recolorable - 4 Channels

Hat Slider Enabled

Includes all LODS, Morphs, and Custom Thumbnails

[DOWNLOAD HERE FOR TEEN - ADULTS]

YA FEMALES

Backtrack - Isla Bikini Top and Bottom

Original Here!

top and bottom for YA-Adult female

Category: swim, sleep, for bottom // everyday, formal, swim, sleep, athletic for top

5.6k poly for bottom // 4.9k for top

Fully Recolorable - 4 Channels for bottom // 1 channel for top

Includes all LODS, Morphs, and Custom Thumbnails

disabled for random enabled for maternity

[DOWNLOAD TOP][DOWNLOAD BOTTOM]

Backtrack - Steh Bikini Top and Bottom

Original Here!

top and bottom for YA-Adult female

Category: swim, sleep, for bottom // everyday, formal, swim, sleep, athletic for top

8.6k for top // 6.7k for bottom

Fully Recolorable - 2 Channels

Includes all LODS, Morphs, and Custom Thumbnails

Disabled for random,enabled for maternity

[DOWNLOAD TOP][DOWNLOAD BOTTOM]

Backtrack - Jane Bikini Top and Bottom

Original Here!

top and bottom for YA-Adult female

Category: swim, sleep, for bottom // everyday, formal, swim, sleep, athletic for top

7.9k for top // 6.1k for bottom

Fully Recolorable - 2 Channels

Includes all LODS, Morphs, and Custom Thumbnails

Disabled for random,enabled for maternity

[DOWNLOAD TOP][DOWNLOAD BOTTOM]

Gorillax3 - Buckle Straps Bikini

Original Here!

Outfit for YA-Adult females

Categories: Swim, Sleep,

9.4k poly

Fully Recolorable - 4 Channels

Includes all LODS, Morphs, and Custom Thumbnails

[DOWNLOAD]

Backtrack - Naia Sarong Skirt

Original Here!

for Teen ➤ Elder Females

Located in Arm Band Category

Categories: Everyday, Formal, Swim, Sleep, Athletic, Outerwear

3.4k polys

Fully Recolorable - 1 Channel + 2 textures: sheer and solid

textures get wonky if you use cc eyelashes with it, fine otherwise

Includes all LODS, Morphs, and Custom Thumbnails

[DOWNLOAD HERE]

Enriques4 - Retro Heart Glasses

Original Here!

Glasses for Teen ➤ Elder Males & Females

Located in Glasses Category

Categories: Everyday, Formal, Swim, Athletic, Outerwear

3.4k polys

Fully Recolorable - 2 Channels

Glasses Slider Enabled

Includes all LODS, Morphs, and Custom Thumbnails

[DOWNLOAD HERE]

CHILD

Mysteriouso0 - Two-Piece Swimsuit With Ruffles

Original Here!

top and bottom for child female

Category: everyday, formal, swim, sleep, athletic for top// sleep, swim for bottom

2.8k poly for bottom // 4.3k for top

Fully Recolorable - 4 Channels

Includes all LODS, Morphs, and Custom Thumbnails

[DOWNLOAD TOP][DOWNLOAD BOTTOM]

Mysteriouso0 - Sports Time Shorts

Original Here!

bottom for children

Category: everyday, swim, sleep, athletic for

1.5k poly

Fully Recolorable - 4 Channels

Includes all LODS, Morphs, and Custom Thumbnails

[DOWNLOAD]

Amelynlina - Jenny Shorts

Original here!

Bottom for Child Male + Female

Category: everyday, swim, sleep, athletic

2.9k poly

Fully Recolorable - 4 Channels

Includes all LODS, Morphs, and Custom Thumbnails

[DOWNLOAD]

DaisyPixels - Kelly Top and Bottom

Original Here!

top and bottom for Child Females

Category: everyday, formal, swim, sleep, athletic for top// sleep, swim for bottom

xk polys for top // 4.1 poly for bottom

Fully Recolorable - 4 Channels

Includes all LODS, Morphs, and Custom Thumbnails, disabled for random

[DOWNLOAD TOP][DOWNLOAD BOTTOM]

Nucrests - Oceanfront Cap

Original Here!

Hat for Child Males & Females

Located in Glasses Category

Categories: Everyday, Swim, Athletic

1.5k poly

Fully Recolorable - 4 Channels

Hat Slider Enabled

Includes all LODS, Morphs, and Custom Thumbnails

[DOWNLOAD HERE FOR KIDS]

TODDLER

Daisy Pixels: Azul Swimsuit

Original Here!

Outfit for Toddler female

Category: everyday, swim, sleep,

6k poly

Fully Recolorable - 4 Channels

Includes all LODS, Morphs, and Custom Thumbnails

[DOWNLOAD]

Daisy Pixels: Noah Swimsuit

Original Here!

Outfit for Toddler female + male

Category: everyday, swim, sleep,

5.3k poly

Fully Recolorable - 4 Channels

Includes all LODS, Morphs, and Custom Thumbnails

[DOWNLOAD]

Daisy Pixels: Rex Shorts

Original Here!

Bottom for Toddler female+ Male

Category: everyday, swim, sleep,

6k poly

Fully Recolorable - 4 Channels

Includes all LODS, Morphs, and Custom Thumbnails

[DOWNLOAD]

aisy Pixels: Azul Donut

Original Here!

For Toddler Males & Females

Located in Glasses Category

Categories: Everyday, Swim, Athletic

500 poly

Fully Recolorable - 4 Channels

Includes all LODS, Morphs, and Custom Thumbnails

[DOWNLOAD]

Daisy Pixels: Azul Hat

Original Here!

For Toddler Males & Females

Located in Glasses Category

Categories: Everyday, Swim, Athletic

1.2 poly

Fully Recolorable - 4 Channels

Includes all LODS, Morphs, and Custom Thumbnails

[DOWNLOAD]

[cripplecharacters]

Do you have tangible advice on *how* to research different disabilities for writing? How to find specific blogs beyond searching the name of the disability on Tumblr, forums, websites with good info, etc? I see a lot of advice that is basically just "research the disability and talk to people who have it" but with how Google has gone down in quality, I'm not sure where to look beyond the surface level info (plus how to find people with the disability who are willing to share niche details/answer really specific situational questions). Thank you for everything you do on this blog!

Hey!

I'd say that you should break the research process into a few steps.

First, figure out what you should actually look into. Think about the genre, intended audience, and role of the character. A background character in a comedy meant for elementary school kids and a main character in an adult romantic novel will have two different approaches. You don't have to (and probably shouldn't) overdo a character that doesn't need it - otherwise it can end up feeling like some sort of disability awareness PSA, and that's probably not what you want.

With that in mind, you can start the actual research. I think that the websites of organizations/foundations for people with that specific disabilities are the best, since they cover a lot of things from many different angles. They are also usually written in simpler language than medical websites (which are also great, but I get that not everyone can understand those, not everyone's fluent in English, etc.) and have more tangible advice for "how to function with XYZ" essentially. It also can give you a glimpse of what your character could specifically struggle with, especially in case of a recent disability - medical pages often won't talk about insurance problems, interpersonal issues, or actually coping with the new state one's body is in. Check the FAQs, or the most commonly visited pages, stuff like that to get an idea on what's important. For example, these are some of the most concise explanations of how someone with a complete spinal cord injury at a specific level might function and what they might need. Something like this can be a good start to figure out where your characters "is", so to speak.

Some organizations for common disabilities might also have some sort of "media representation" page that's made specifically for writers. UK's Down Syndrome Association has one, Face Equality International has one, Phoenix Society has one, US Foundation for the Blind has one, etc.

This alone is more research than the vast majority of writers bother to do. If you actually understand:

what the disability is,

what symptoms it has,

how those affect your character in day-to-day life,

how to avoid the most common offensive stereotypes,

you are doing better than a lot of published writers, to be honest.

Okay, but what can you do to make it even better:

Since at this step you know what symptoms your character has and which ones you will actually show to the audience, you can start researching them one by one.

Here you might have to go read some medical studies, and learning how to get information out of those is a skill that needs some practice. But it is necessary to figure out if your blind character's vision loss is more likely to be total with no light perception or 20/200 (and, to figure out if your character's eye condition even causes blindness... because I've seen "blind characters" who are blind from eye conditions that... do not cause vision loss) so that you can actually research appropriate accommodations or aids.

Knowing specific symptoms will be even more helpful if your character's disability isn't very common - symptoms are very rarely tied to just a single disability, and you might have more luck researching a completely different one. For example, if you can't find info on something related to being a unilateral arm amputee, try searching for solutions that hemiplegics use. Not all will apply, but a lot of this stuff will be the same.

Make sure you understand what you do or don't do with those symptoms. There might be treatments, there might be some lifestyle changes to be done, there might be some strict limitation that you will have to put on your character for them to make sense. I think it's better to fit the character concept to the symptoms that you want and not the other way around - if you do the latter, you might find yourself writing an essentially abled character or a disabled character that is just inconsistent. Not every disability will be compatible with every role or concept, and there's really no point in trying to put us literally everywhere. If you really can't find a solution for something you need the character to do, it might mean that there just isn't one.

Once you figure out the technical stuff and have all the "dry" information laid out, start seeking the real life equivalents. Start widely at first so that you can narrow it down later, not the other way around (unless you don't mind changing the character around a lot). If you have already done a lot of technical research before, you will have more specific questions (which are easier to answer than "how do I write a disabled character").

Look up daily vlogs and day-in-a-life videos on youtube from people with that disability (and don't be afraid of only very-low views count videos popping up as that's almost inevitable - there are very few big disability youtubers, so try giving the smaller ones a chance). Watch interviews where people with that condition explain how their daily life is, how their disability affects it. SBSK is one of the best IMO. Check out AMAs on Reddit. Read personal blogs (you can generally find some by just putting "living with Name of Disability blog" into search). There's a ton of people who sincerely want to help others understand the realities of living with their disability and name their stuff accordingly so that it's easy to find.

At this stage you should have a decent idea of how the disability affects your character both in the technical sense, and in the more practical one.

Try to write out their average daily routine - from how they get up in the morning to when they go to sleep. Try to actively think "how would they do it" - how would they get from their bed and into their wheelchair, how would they dress up, how would they commute to work, how would they communicate with others, how would they get from point A to point B. If you realize that you're suddenly stuck, you now have a specific question ("how to put on pants with no hands", "how do totally blind people use computers", "shower accommodations C5 SCI", whatever) which is much easier to research than just a vague awareness of Not Knowing how your character functions in general. All of these questions have been asked before - newly disabled people will be going through them in their real life, and they use the same search engines and same social media as everyone else.

If you get this far, you're doing quite great! I'd say that this is enough effort to make a good and complex disabled character that's important in the story, though maybe not the POV character.

For a POV character, if you aren't disabled, you probably need a sensitivity reader/consultant.

There are a lot of those in writing spaces already - a lot of disabled people write themselves. If you just drop a "I need a sensitivity reader for XYZ" and use the general writing tags, there's a high chance you will get a response (assuming the XYZ in question isn't something very rare and/or so severe it would prevent someone from using the internet in general).

You can also try the disability's tag (don't get discouraged if it's not used a lot, a lot of people lurk without posting anything themselves) since you're looking for a real person and intending to pay them (very different from abled writers randomly posting their blorbos in disability tags).

Some of the places where you can try looking are r/SensitivityReaders, WritingDiversely, FireflyCreativeWriting, even sites like Fiverr could work. I've also heard some good things about Facebook writing groups, but I don't have any personal experience with them.

You can also always reach out to an association for people with the kind of disability you need - tell them that you are a writer and are looking to pay a sensitivity reader to help you, and they might be able to refer you to someone who would like to do that.

Another thing would be to keep intersectionality in mind - if your character is disabled, but otherwise part of the majority in every other sense (in NA or most of EU: white, rich, Christian, cisgender, straight, non-immigrant), you will have less things to consider than if your character has the same disability but is also a Polynesian transgender immigrant. If any intersectionality is particularly important to what you're writing, you should include that as well (you can also work with multiple sensitivity readers to try and get as close as possible).

My last advice is to only seek out sensitivity readers if you're able to pay them a fair amount for their work. Don't ask people to work for you for free (which is probably obvious, but a ton of fanfic and whump writers on Tumblr seem completely unaware of this).

Technical tips:

For specifically avoiding AI slop, I recommend putting [before:2023] after whatever question you put in, it will filter all results made after 2022, eliminating 99% of AI nonsense (works for images too).

If you're constantly getting a specific kind of wrong result, use [-ThingYouDon'tWant] after the input, it will remove everything that contains it.

If you're not getting a specific result, put the word you need in quotes ["Word You Need"] and it will force only the results who use that specific phrase/term to appear.

So if you're trying to find a blog about living with quadriplegic cerebral palsy as an adult and can't find any relevant searches by putting just that into the search, try ["cerebral palsy" "blog" quadriplegic -parents -spinal -SCI] and you should get more relevant stuff.

That's how I generally try to approach research for writing and I would say I've had good results (including now). Researching is a skill that requires practice unfortunately, at some point you can simply tell when a resource is bad or good since you've looked at so many already.

Follower input is welcome and encouraged :-)

mod Sasza

[yellowballoondogs]

Giving the x-men disabilities so they can suffer like me

I just think it’s cool how much people can relate to the x-men in marginalized groups no matter the group. Just like how they’re all gay, POC, religious minorities, etc.

Cyclops- Scott Summers

C’mon this is the most autistic man to ever autism

He’s got model plane sets and shit around his otherwise empty and perfectly cleaned room with the sheet corners tucked in and everything

He stopped stimming because of O’Diamonds and Sinisters abuse but started again when he got more comfortable with the o5 team. He definitely does flappy hands

He probably hyper fixated on an obscure engineering subject

photophobia- light sensitivity

Idk if it’s cannon or not but it would make sense with his brain damage and all (plus I have it and I’m projecting) it’s also an autism symptom so double whammy- his glasses will help

Migrainous stroke- basically stroke with migraines. It ties into brain damage and photophobia with migraines which would make so much sense. Frequent strokes too? Fuck yeah let’s highlight how his childhood trauma and overwhelming power effect him- how mutant powers aren’t always good.

He should have really shitty vision- canonically colorblind- wears glasses all the time so low light, his eyes basically fucking glow. This man cannot see for shit

“cut the red wire cyclops!” “They’re all red!”

Storm- Ororo Monroe

She’s canonically claustrophobic but it’s really only used as a once in awhile plot device

I think it should tie into anxiety a lot more

Ororo is the kind of person who uses a planner to manage every aspect of her day so she’s never caught of guard

She’s got only one timer set up to take her meds instead of 10 like the rest of us (she’s simply better)

She would have actual panic attacks that don’t end the second she’s out of a confined space. Full run-

For her a panic attack would cause a lot of derealization. She doesn’t feel like she’s in her body, she feels out of control, like she can’t breathe, dizzy, both hot and cold at the same time.

Nightcrawler-Kurt Wagner

syndactyly- fusion of fingers or toes. This is basically cannon. He’s got 2 big fingers and toes so like no explanation really needed. He’s got it even if it’s for different reasons.

This greatly effects his ability to do certain things- our boy can’t use a controller can he? How’s he meant to play Mario cart with the rest of the team ):

Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome- bendy bones and stretchy skin that causes lots of joint pain

He canonical has bendy bones so like this is also half canon. Plus I’m giving my blorbo chronic pain to project.

Pretty sure there’s a Spider-Man with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome too so that’s very slay.

Rouge- Anne-Marie

Hear me out- HPV It’s the whole- “I can’t touch anyone” thing

She was born with it

It causes a lot of pain for her but she hides it around people she’s not comfortable with (so really just unmasking in front of remy and her family)

Also stds just need to be a lot more normalized. And her having to be so weird about people with it fits so much with the whole “ew mutants” thing

Xavier

Yeah yeah he’s a paraplegic

They should be better about it though. No more of this curing him so often he’s like the one famous character wheelchair bound people get

Stop making him so weak, he runs a school to learn how to kick ass, man can probably box, who needs legs. They always just make him useless once someone kicks over his chair or something

Chronic migraines again

Listen hearing all those thoughts all the time can’t be all sunshine’s and rainbows. Make him suffer (this goes for all telepaths)

Gambit- Remy Lebeau

He canonically has brain damage (via lebeatomy) (haha get it)

He’s getting hit with migraines too. Making all these losers suffer

He probably also has very bad vision because of his eyes- probably not very good with light just like cyclops (likely worse)

I’m going to give him the worlds worst period cramps via dysmenorrhea. Yeah he’s trans to me I’m a romy t4t Reuther

Rapid fire listings let’s go!

Jubilee canonically has Dyscalculia- like dyslexia for numbers

Wolverine canonically has memory issues and ptsd

Magneto canonically has ptsd

Legion canonically has multiple personality disorder or DID- dissociative identity disorder. It’s not always portrayed the best but rep is rep

Angel canonically has hollow bones- I’m gonna gc him with osteoporosis

Headcanoning Madelyn Pryor with post partum depression

Scarlet witch gets head cannoned half of all the mental disorders- depression, psychosis, ptsd, and anything you wanna give her. Girl needs a staff of therapists, psychologists, and a cocktail of pills

Quicksilver gets headcannoned with ADHD. Boring I know but I’ve got it and it fits him so projection time

Let marrow have ptsd. Girl witnessed a genocide of her people and her moms death as a child. Why do they skim over that? Girl is suffering

Pyro canonically had the legacy virus which was like a big euphemism for AIDs so he gets that. Plus he also gets hit with the autism beam

Toad is autistic. No further questions

Jean grey gets the psychic migraines but I’m also giving her autism cause her relationship with Scott is nowhere near neurotypical. The biggest disability marvel gave her was liking wolverine though. He canonically smells like shit and is an asshole. I love him.

Kitty pryde gets type 1 diabetes- I cannot explain why it fits her it just does

Cable gets lupus cause he canonically had a fantasy space tech autoimmune disease so let’s just make it more realistic

Daken gets lactose intolerance (he’s fine because he doesn’t really actually eat dairy)

Iceman gets lactose intolerance (he’s not fine because he loves all things dairy)

Dust gets celiac disease

[suzannahnatters]

Some weirdly specific tropes that I absolutely adore but rarely see: Platonic Love Triangle Two attractive people will battle to the death over the right to be friends with you (I wrote this in A Day of Darkness and otherwise have only seen it in the kdrama Tale of the Nine-Tailed 1938)

The UnChosen One In the magical fantasy world, everyone has super awesome magical powers, except the protagonist (A Dream of Fire by JR Rasmussen did this SO WELL and it made me SO HAPPY; I also plan to do it myself in an upcoming project, A Lord of Thorns and Teeth)

Dying Baby King Terminally ill teen boy should be asking out his crush and having fun, not killing himself running a country (I wrote this in The Lady of Kingdoms with my squishy darling Baldwin IV, and I've only ever seen it done otherwise in the Trevor Nunn movie My Lady Jane)

Disabled Love Interest Put your romantic male lead in a wheelchair you cowards (Stella Dorthwany's Song and Flame and @rj-anderson's Knife have two of the best disabled love interests I've seen)

Sword in the Bed You've heard of Only One Bed but this is the superior medieval variant: before they bunk down together one of them draws a naked sword and lays it in the bed between them (IIRC, it happens in the Welsh Pwyll, Prince of Dyfed, and apart from that and some other medieval legends and fairytales, I've only seen it in an unfinished work by @rj-anderson auuuugh)

Fake Divorced Exactly what it says on the tin (I've never seen this? but DV I'll be writing it into the 5th Miss Dark book)

Bad Fictional Matriarchy What if the patriarchy was a fantasy matriarchy? It'd still be bad, obviously. I see this so rarely but it is always an opportunity for fantastic, layered social criticism (Greta Gerwig's Barbie movie did it well; I'm struggling to recall the one (1) other fantasy novel I read that did it!)

Sad Wet Puppy X Righteous Female Warrior ETL Enemies-to-lovers, but he's a skinny waterlogged little weirdo and she's the righteous paladin who is going to hound him to his destruction without mercy on the strength of her own heavenly wrath (it's the one thing in common between the kdrama Flower of Evil and the cdrama Till the End of the Moon and both of them sent me absolutely feral, plus I have an untitled project on the backburner that will give me the chance to do my own version of this...)

[rei-ismyname]

oddly enough, the krakoa era is making me come around on Scott Jean. My X-men reading has been a little all over the place lately, I think what initially bothered me with claremont’s scott and jean was that the phoenix was so much more interesting to me then what Jean and Scott had going on in the early days.

I like when writers give them a rapport, i’ve been trying to read original X-factor as well and among a few things, the fact that they don’t have much on screen chemistry drags things down. Now, I’m aware that I might be too early in all of this to call things, I haven’t read all 16 years of claremont and I certainly haven’t finished X-factor. I still need to finish 90s X-men.

What made Scott and Emma entertaining to me, was that they bounced off one another. I did truly enjoy what they had going on in astonishing, for example. It felt like a more mature, realized relationship. Maybe it’s because it has less baggage then “we’ve been together and occasionally not since the 60s,” that’s just my guess for my own enjoyment.

Sorry if this was a tangent, I mean to ask your opinions on either pairing? What do you have more fun reading?

Hello there! Turns out I have an awful lot of thoughts, and I had to edit judiciously otherwise I'd keep yammering forever.

Nice! Same here, kinda. I'd been out of comics for a decade or more until House of X pulled me back in. I didn't have the strongest feelings about them either way except for thinking the movies did a crappy job of capturing them separately or together. I was taken aback at first by the domesticity they'd established, but it didn't take long for me to appreciate it as a framework for storytelling and character study (and as something precious to threaten.)

I hear that and agree! For all that the Phoenix has been beaten to death as a plot device, it did so much for both characters 'growing up' for lack of a better term. I've come to view every element of comics through the lens of adaptation - not exclusively - but the O5 are adaptations of Superman and the other superheroes that predated them - and each iteration of the X-Men are adapted from what came before it. It's not a bad thing (mostly) but different hands at different times with different mandates adapt the concept into something else, using classic iterations in as many ways as possible. I feel that the Phoenix conceptually pushed the adaptation somewhere quite bold - and grew up.

I've probably read most of it, but there's just so much - plus I acquired a disability that fried my memory ~10 years ago so I'm always re-reading to enjoy it (kinda for the first time) and to rebuild those memory pathways. TLDR same, bestie. Let's touch base in 6 months, hey? 😀

I really enjoy both couples and don't have a preference as long as it's written well without going back to the misogyny well or just killing Jean because they don't know what to do with her. The Phoenix is both Jean's original sin and the start of her canonisation, while being incredibly powerful. Annoyingly, Marvel overdid it but couldn't keep Jean alive for so long.

Scott/Emma are fascinating to me for so many reasons. They're a power couple that inadvertently recreate many of the same dynamics Scott and Jean did, due to the telepathy and being thrust into leadership (by Jean no less.) They support and challenge each other, they practice radical honesty and make each other better, they have to navigate the reputations they have (fair and not) while trying to keep an endangered species afloat during a period of constant war. Seriously, the 'lost decade' is just endless trauma and genocidal threats. They went through hell together, even when many abandoned or opposed them.

They're both strong individuals who know who they are and what they want, but they're quite different people even in their similarities. They almost shouldn't work, but they do. If you told me they'd be a long term couple when Emma was first introduced I wouldn't have believed it. No way. Like Emma's radical character arc and face turn, they grow together while having all the doubts.

They're both heirs to 'The Dream' in very different ways that mesh well ideologically. Xavier and Magneto both had unrealistic visions of what was best for mutant rights activism, Xavier in his liberal naivete and Magneto losing himself in the war. Emma is a better teacher than Xavier and can operate well in human institutions, but she doesn't trust them blindly in part because she's been at ground floor of genocide. They've both lost students, but only one of them thinks about it a lot and informs her decision making.

She's got the pragmatism and proactiveness of Magneto without slipping into the megalomania (usually.) A diamond fist with the interpersonal skills and resources to build a coalition. She's overlooked as a leader I think, but ideologically she strikes me as the next generation of mutant activism who learnt from the mistakes of old men and actually listens to the kids.

Scott has been a disciple of Xavier since he was a kid, but when The Dream didn't fit reality he ditched it and made plans. He had Xavier and Mags as advisors, and formed a synthesis of their dialectic approaches. Together they embraced not just personal growth, but a revolution in X-Men operations. I enjoyed reading almost all of their time together but especially Utopia era when they were at their power couple peak blazing a new path for survival.

Scott and Jean have known each other since their early teens, but for all that they were high school sweethearts they spent decades apart. They have their own lives and achievements separate from each other, but the love is always there and they bring out the best in one another. They went through hell too, but Jean wasn't around for the darkest times. This drastically affects their worldview, and the God/Mortal dichotomy is a fascinating extension of that and power dynamic. Importantly, they accept each other as they are and there's so much love and understanding present.

That's the core of them for me - no matter what they're always ride or die, yet secure enough to be individuals with different lives and agendas. Their normal is hectic to anyone else but they make it work. Importantly, they've both grown a lot, as much as comics will allow at least. They've been through shit and learnt from it, including situations that would melt most people's brains. There's a lot of forgiveness and understanding too, as long as there's forward movement. Right now is an interesting example - Jean needs to be in space so they make it work. I hope they're allowed to.

Krakoa was peak in general for me, and definitely for Scott and Jean. Wholesome family time with a backdrop of superheroics and polyamory? Hell yeah. Both have good relationships with Emma and Logan, with the boring love triangles and rivalry in the past (yes they were all fucking, I don't care what Tom Brevoort says.) Krakoa meant something different for each of them - safety with one foot in the human world for Scott and progressivism for Jean (a bit reductive but you get me) - which led their growth in different directions. That core partnership was there underneath it all, and they got through everything, even death.

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for refusing to file for disability in order to pay bills?

I quit my job right when COVID started surging in 2020 because my boss refused to mask and I'm immunocompromised; I also didn't wanna bring that home to my partners (I'll call them Fox and Rabbit), one of whom is also immunocompromised, or our then-toddler kid either. (Plus, my boss wasn't paying me consistently on-time or the full amounts I was owed, but that's another can of worms)

However, I wasn't able to find anything work-from-home (I have auditory processing issues that make phone jobs impossible, plus we didn't have internet so I was just hotspotting off my phone to get online), and because of lockdown, safety concerns, and lack of a vehicle, I couldn't really get an in-person job either, so I did as much as I could taking care of household budgeting, conflict resolution, and looking after our 3-4yo kid along with Fox (who did most of the actual housework, as I wasn't able to be outside my room much because I was severely allergic to the pets there at the time).

Rabbit (kid's bio-parent) became work-from-home after a brief stint on unemployment due to their employer fucking around, staying over with their coworker/other partner (I'll call Rose) for the internet, and our other roommate contributed to rent until he moved out, so we were able to stay afloat and safely isolated for a while at least, and I started teaching our kid to read and write as my main share of the household contribution, which everyone at least claimed to be fine with.

Fast forward a bit, and both me and Rabbit got extra people in the household mix; a partner who I'd been involved with online for some time (Chomps) moved in with us, and Rabbit married Rose and moved in with her officially, with the kid staying on non-workdays with them and otherwise being looked after mostly by Fox and I. Eventually, with leases on both our places running out but with all of us outspokenly committed to working together, we all moved into Rose's parents' house (while they were overseas on vacation; they wanted caretakers there to look after Rose's younger sibling, who is disabled). Rose's parents--who are also polyam and very well-off--offered to bankroll a new home for all of us so we didn't have rent to pay for a while and could just catch up on things. Chomps even secured a decent-paying job. Things were going very well!

Then, a significant wrinkle came when Chomps needed to quit due to COVID concerns (anti-vaxxers in a high-risk environment, no vaccines available for small kids yet so we were mostly worried about the kid as we'd all been vaxxed at that point otherwise). At the time, everyone agreed that was a good idea! So, everyone braced for financial belt-tightening, and Chomps quit.

At this point, I was barely eating one meal a day out of guilt for my inability to contribute much, but I was also homeschooling our then-pre-k-into-kindergarten-age kid, and helping cook food and handle chores. Due to both Rabbit and Rose working from home and complaining of connection issues whenever anyone else used internet, me and Chomps could barely job-hunt (our phones didn't really get signal out there either), and without the ability to drive or a consistently-available vehicle, we worried constantly about providing for the household. Still, Rose and Rabbit reassured us that it was fine and getting handled.

Until one day it apparently wasn't, and Rose started getting onto me specifically (having been jobless for a couple years at this point, only getting two interviews despite putting in literally hundreds of applications) about filing for disability. Her opinion was that I could "just be on it until [I] got a job". That is not how disability works, and I told her as much, and refused to even start that process instead of continuing to look for work that I could feasibly do (which, frankly, was already taking as much time and effort as a full-time job, just with no financial benefit).

Granted, I could probably qualify for disability benefits, since I have physical and mental issues that make my range of possible employment pretty limited (though, as I'd been able to put in hundreds of applications to things I was sure I could do, it's far from impossible for me to work). However, the type of disabilities I would most easily and likely qualify with are the kind that would also very probably have my autonomy removed (this has been confirmed by two doctors and a therapist independently of one another). Plus, I'd be unable to marry Fox (as we'd agreed to do years and years ago) or get a job again without risking the loss of any benefits I could manage to secure, and also making it incredibly hard to recover those benefits if/when I further deteriorated down the line due to age, injury, or other factors and actually couldn't physically work.

So, while continuing my (unexpectedly unsuccessful) hunt for employment beyond a once-monthly gig that paid ~$75 (which is how I bought my own essential toiletries and groceries), I homeschooled the kid (which was a success, to the point that they later rolled into 1st grade with reading, writing, and math proficiency well above their peers!!), did most of the house troubleshooting and repair, and used as few resources as possible to minimize my impact on household finances, to the point that I averaged eating only one meal each day for years. Still, AITA for not just biting the bullet and giving up on the job hunt to prioritize securing disability payments?

(It's been about two years since that point and our current situation is stable despite partial dissolution of the polycule, with Fox and Chomps both working and paying the entirety of my portion of "rent" on the place Rose's parents bought her, while I continue to job-hunt with help from the state's vocational rehab dept. Fox and Chomps reassure me every time that they can see I'm doing my best and they're happy to take care of me as needed; I still feel fucked up about not being able to contribute financially and take care of them and everyone else in the same way, and wonder all the time if I made/am making the right call by refusing to pursue disability benefits unless I absolutely physically cannot work.)

What are these acronyms?

[jellycatstuffies]

how are things with you atm? I remember a while ago you were experiencing some financial difficulties and I just wanted to check in. I hope things have improved. Very grateful for the work you put into this blog and into answering people's asks

Oof... This is a difficult question to answer. I was debating whether to put up another post about my current situation since it might affect my post frequency, but decided against it.

My long-time partner moved out a few days ago and now I am on my own and I'm just trying to survive. I do not know when I will see him again and everything feels very vulnerable right now. No, my financial situation has not improved, largely due to the slowness of bureaucracy and simply bad luck. I've been working with a team of social workers to get a disability pension because of my autism as well as some issues connected to that, but it's taking forever. If that comes through, I could finally relax a little and focus on my passion full-time.

Thank you for your kind words by the way! A lot of people dismiss my social platforms (this blog and my instagram) as "a silly hobby" or "fun" or they call me a "jellycat addict" (something I think is insulting and makes me sound like a crazy person). While I certainly love running these platforms and putting out content, it is REAL WORK, too. It's nice to be appreciated. My platforms give me a sense of purpose in a world that doesn't see value in the skills I have to offer as well as an opportunity to make social connections I would never make otherwise. (Plus, when you get to the point of speaking with the Jellycat CEO personally and privately, I think you are more than just "another fan"🙄)

I'm sorry if this turned into a bit of a rant, I'm going through a really tough time emotionally... As always though, neither this blog nor my Instagram with my Jellycat photography are going anywhere.

-Victor

[eelektrik]

🎮🩹🎶💤🍎😊🍸

for the oc ask meme, abt the most totally normal siblings i've seen

HIII LEEEE

🎮 VIDEO GAME CONTROLLER — what are three of your oc's favorite hobbies?

ha-eun: fiber arts (crochet, knitting, embroidery, etc), skateboarding, doing drugs singing voyager: the only hobby he really has is painting because he's otherwise committed to school work or killing people LOL. but as a kid he was forced into piano lessons!

🩹 ADHESIVE BANDAGE — does your oc have any physical and/or mental disabilities?

ha-eun: mental - complex-post traumatic stress disorder, borderline personality disorder, histrionic personality disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, attention defecit/hyperactive disorder, derealization depersonalization disorder, major depressive disorder; and physical represents itself in chronic leg pain voyager: mental - complex-post traumatic stress disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, schizophrenia, autism, and dissociative identity disorder; and physical, he's blind in one eye from it being damaged

🎶 MUSICAL NOTES — what type of music does your oc like? do they listen to music very often?

ha-eun: nine inch nails enjoyer 100%. i have a playlist for what she would listen to which is just various forms of nu-metal with sprinkles of doja cat, megan thee stallion, and lil nas x LOL. also yes i think he listens to her music constantly voyager: not much of a music enjoyer in most cases. like, he likes it? but not like... it's not part of his everyday life or anything. i think he'd like modern deftones and stuff like it. some more soft stuff. maybe classical!

💤 SLEEPING SIGN — is your oc a light sleeper or a heavy sleeper? how are their sleeping habits?

ha-eun: light sleeper. sleeps really well when he's sleeping with other people, though. otherwise he sleeps pretty late and wakes up pretty early. she's a 6 hour max girlie voyager: light sleeper. he probably prefers to take naps rather than be asleep for long stretches of time, so if he can help it he doesn't sleep very long. perpetually tired regardless of the amoutn of sleep so why waste time 🤷‍♀️

🍎 RED APPLE — where was your oc born? do they still live in/around their place of birth or do they live somewhere else? how do they feel about their birthplace?

so they were both born in south korea. specifically changwon city in the jinhae-gu district.

ha-eun: misses home. she was 15 when they moved to the us so he lived enough time there to consider it a major part of home. he wants to go back some day, but he's too poor to afford it. (she misses the cherry blossoms.) voyager: he was 12 when they moved to the us, so enough to stick with him. but he gets winter soldiered when he's in his 20s so he doesn't remember it. plus. after the whole um killing his brother thing, he considers everythign with ha-eun a past life. so that plus the brainwashing, he doesn't see a reason to call it his home. he would like to go back, just to say he did.

😊 SMILING FACE WITH SMILING EYES — what are your oc's career/general life desires? what do they want to get the most out of life?

ha-eun: wants to do something that will make him famous. a dancer, a singer, a model. she just wants to be on stage with the spotlight on her. she knows it's not really possible, but she's pretty enough for it. so if she can find the right way in... voyager: so, the whole reason they moved to the us was because his mom told him that he was going to be the breadwinner of their family when he was old enough. he was going to go into law and make his family wealthy. he killed his brother though and fled so that never happened xoxo

🍸 COCKTAIL GLASS — what is your oc's favorite alcoholic drink, if they can drink?

ha-eun: fruity drinks, specifically strawberry soju voyager: (unflavored) soju or vodka

[imaginethezeldaverse]

Hello! I don't know if you write for the more obscure characters in Botw/Totk but I figured I'd ask just in case ☺️ Could you please write something about Tauro, Purah, Sidon and Zelda dating a Sheikah s/o who's chronically ill/disabled? It'd be great if you could make them specifically have weak bones and be really short too, and they're often upset how people keep babying them because they might fracture or break something. But if you want to keep it more open-ended that's fine too!

Thank you so so much, you're probably my favorite Zelda blog on Tumblr! Your writing and ideas are always like *chefs kiss* 😘! Have a good day and drink lots of water!

Whenever people tell me I'm their favorite anything it literally shocks me because there are SO many fantastic zelda fic blogs on here that I feel are vastly superior - but I thank you nonetheless! 🥰

I'll write for pretty much any character - I just keep romance and nsfw content for adults. So I'd be happy to!

Tauro, as well-mannered and good-natured he is, is amongst the mass where he needs to be reminded that while you are disabled, you aren't incapable of doing normal things. He tries his best to remember that, but his rambunctious and steadfast nature leads him to be righteous and helpful, even when it's not needed. Plus given his height, he always just assumes that people tend to need help to reach things in tall places if he's ever around. He does try his best to be sensitive to your needs and wants, however, tapping his hand to his chest when he catches himself doing too much. Instead, he makes an effort to remind himself to wait for you to ask him should you need anything. Very affectionate, otherwise - he enjoys making you smile and wrapping his big ol' bear arms around you (albeit, he's careful not to actually squeeze you too hard because he does NOT know his own strength) and is very attentive on the days that you specifically don't feel well and your body leaves you in a weaker state than normal.

Purah, being the research fanatic and accomplished scientist that she is, is already aware and well read on your illness. That, however, has never stopped her from being absolutely smitten with you. Where she is boisterous and outlandish, there is a careful resilience to you that she keeps close to her heart. She sees your frustration often with the townsfolk who treat you with unnecessary delicacy, and while she understands the "good-intent", she feels as you do: chronic illness should not beget differential treatment. When you express your frustrations, she's an open ear always. Purah is never one to explain why the people of your community act this way that leans in their favor, but rather why their attitudes should not portray you under a fragile light when you are anything but. She empathizes with you greatly, knowing exactly what it's like for your own people to treat you like you're something you're not (her experiences with de-aging left quite the mark), but she assures you that you've always got her on your side.

“I’ve never much like everyone else…and neither have you,” Purah muses, tapping her recorder in her hand. She lifts her glasses, her crimson eyes blazing in your direction with admiration and sincerity, “I guess that makes us a cut above the rest, now doesn’t it?”

Sidon is about as bubbly with you as you can imagine. That sharp smile completely alight when you're with him. His height difference compared to yours doesn't bother him considering he towers greatly over just about everyone he meets, so as long as you don’t care (which he secretly hopes you don’t!) then all is well. When he learns about your chronic illness, he’s at first admittedly worried, but he sees how much you value your independence and doesn’t push you to do less than anything you’re up for. Sidon, having learned his healing capabilities from Mipha, will actually offer to “bathe” with you whenever you’re not feeling especially strong, letting the softness of his magically imbued water immerse your body and take any pain or pressure off of your form for a while and bring you some ease. You don’t take him up on it often, half because you don’t feel it’s always necessary, and half because you don’t want to impose - though of course Sidon would refute you ever being an imposition upon him. He chooses his words very carefully, making sure to give you the impression that he’s willing to do whatever you need should you need something from him, but without overstepping and making you feel incapable.

“You’ll never be without, my darling,” Sidon whispers, taking your hand, those slit-pupiled eyes softening as he brushes back a lock of your silver-white hair, “But I will never claim to know you better than yourself.”

Zelda has always been a ball of curiosity, that’s one of the things you love about her. She has an awfully curious mind, so when you explain to her about your chronic illness for the first time, she of course asks you a lot of questions. You laugh thinking about back then, how she felt terrible for borderline prying into your life though she wanted to know everything about you at that time. You remember assuring her that it was fine, and it made you incredibly grateful that Impa had introduced you before she stepped down - it allowed you two to get close. The times that you’ve gone to town together, Zelda takes notice of how people tend to treat you akin to porcelain: delicate, fragile, some even giving off the impression that you’re a lost cause because of your Sheikah heritage. Combined with your stature (with Zelda herself being on the shorter side of an average Hylian’s height), it’s enough to infuriate you both. You two tend to bounce off of one another: shes sticks up for you when you feel like someone’s unnecessarily babying you, and you put your two cents in whenever someone is overly cautious and hovering due to her status, even after proving herself beyond capable. Ultimately she too understands your plight of people looking at you differently because of who are you or what they know about you. She recants the days when her father treated her as helpless and small, hyper focused on keeping her in line rather than letting her be her own person. She takes your hand, intertwining fingers with yours and lending you a genuine smile.

“But we are not weak. We are not frail or easily broken. I am not defined entirely by my title,” Zelda kisses the top of your hand before gently covering it with her other in an endearing move, “And you are not defined by your illness.”

[betterbemeta]

As it is right now, machine learning image generation is classist. It depends strongly on the human audience's eye for pareidolia to smooth over its inconsistencies and find patterns in its noise where its procedural generation falls short.

This means that the less opportunity a person has to gain context for information, the more likely 'AI art' is to be convincing. As long as that person has been given a baseline to 'believe' the general arrangement of elements, AI art will 'make sense' even if that baseline is just exposure to more acontextual imagery. Which is what the machine learning's algorithms were trained on in the first place.

For example, 'AI' right now struggles to coherently depict plants. When it's not blurry, indistinct plant fur, leaves from different kinds of plants appear on the same stem, plants from the wrong biome are included in 'nature' images. Someone who has very little educational opportunity, but has seen movies where people walk through jungles or forests as set pieces or something, might not notice the difference. And why do you 'need' to know if the plants look right, poor person; you'll never leave your immediate area or take a biology class!

Someone without the opportunity or comfort to travel might not recognize that a cityscape has been artificially generated, depicts no actual real-world city. Is that supposed picture of Dubai or New York City or Cairo showing a real place that exists? Who cares, you're too poor to ever go there.

Searching for information about animal species, even, can get messed up by generated 'content.' Do servals have ear tufts? What kind of insect is that? What species of lizard or snake am I looking at? You don't deserve to know what kinds of animals are real. What time do you have to go to a zoo, if there's even one around you?

The less money you have, the more likely you are to be surrounded by advertising and "AI Art" is ideal for advertising because it only tells a very simple story at best. There's no complicated human emotions; its literally made of averages of what has been seen before. Marketing and advertising content often replaces actual art that might be a window into a greater world. It may even just be dropped in there to fill the awkward silence or blankness that would have otherwise surrounded marketing efforts-- commercials would be surreal without some say-nothing 'music' track behind them, and billboards would be creepy without the graphic noise that surrounds the product and its information. Someone who passes through more monetized public spaces per day will see more of it than someone who inhabits private property.

And like, at the end of the day if you are wealthy... you probably don't care about any of this. You have access to whatever you want, so why do you care what's real? You trust you can 'pay for' the real thing, right?

Plus, who knows the economic status of who generated imagery the machine learning algorithms train on? It's all stolen.

Photography has been critical in modern history for bringing 'the world' across social divisions of class, race, geographical divides. Photographers and filmmakers, along with other visual artists as well as musicians, writers, and journalists associated with all of these disciplines give us lenses, framing, voices, and perspectives to understand our greater world no matter where we are. Hell, identifying the human intentions BEHIND those lenses, framings, voices is key to our development. No matter your circumstances, with a strong grasp of media literacy anyone can sit down and say, wait a minute, is this real, would it be true for me too? Or is this someone's point of view?

To the point of view of wealth and capital, the working class and those without wealth who cannot work (disabled people, displaced people, homeless people shut out of employment, and more) do not deserve to know about reality. To that point of view, nonwealthy people don't deserve to even know who created the perspectives they're allowed to see. You can be born, get trained to work, go to work, come home to the minimum, repeat, and die having seen no images of reality for all they care. They'd like that! How can you dream of something outside the current exploitative structure if you can't even trust you know what plants and animals and cities look like, outside your tiny box?

[cripplecharacters]

I have a small cast of fan characters, for a little story that I do post on here but purposely has a very small audience. All of them have various disabilities. (One is deaf, one has a facial difference and unrelated speech issues, one has a congenital limb difference and autism, one is blind… there are others.) I only have one of those disabilities (autism), and the more I write, the more I feel like I shouldn’t write. I follow this blog, look up resources, and try very hard to avoid any harmful tropes. I make it known that I am open to issues being pointed out to me so that I can do better.

But time and time again I feel like I am doing more harm than good. Tonight I have reached the point of wondering whether I should even keep writing these disabilities at all. It’s not that I don’t consider the research worth doing, or that I don’t want to put forth the effort. It’s not that at all. It’s just that I am so overwhelmed and scared of getting things wrong. I don’t want to contribute to any harmful depictions in any way, but I feel like I will mess up no matter what. I feel like it’s arrogant of me to write characters who deal with things I don’t, and that no amount of research can give me the nuance or awareness to write things I don’t experience. I feel like nothing I could do in this situation would be good or right.

Because on the other hand, I don’t want to get rid of the characters’ disabilities, since that’s bad too!

I try very hard to write in a respectful and informed way. But at the end of the day, I don’t have those others disabilities, so maybe I just shouldn’t be writing them. Is it better to avoid writing what I don’t personally experience, and just stick to my own disability?

— MicronLizard

Hi!

Of course we have to write about experiences other than our own. Otherwise our stories would be boring--we can't only write people exactly like us all the time.

Please write disabled characters of all types. Don't be afraid to make mistakes. You won't know everything and that's okay! It's okay for your work to not be perfect representation. And there are plenty of resources out there to help you fix mistakes. Run ideas by us, get a sensitivity reader, ask around disabled communities if anybody is willing to give feedback!

Even if you've done all your research, you won't create a character that resonates with 100% of people with your character's disability. Everyone has different experiences. Some disabled characters that others love are not what I want to see represented; that doesn't mean it's bad representation!

The goal is just to write something beyond a trope. It's impossible to capture every single nuance of the messy reality of disability within a story. If you are so scared of writing "good rep" that you don't include it, we won't get any more rep. Imperfect but well-intentioned representation is far better than stereotypes or no representation at all.

Mod Rock

Hello!

From this ask, I don't see any way in which your writing would be doing harm. As you mention: you research, you try to avoid harmful tropes, look up resources, are open to feedback, put in effort. Plus on the basis of this ask existing and us answering it, you talk to other disabled people about writing disabled characters.

Just based on this, you're doing more than 90% of published writers who write disabled characters, and more than 99% of writers who only share their stories online. I know that this blog might give off a different impression based on the complexity and specificity of asks we get and advice we give, but the average writer doesn't know there's more than one sign language nor that most blind people can see a bit, most of them refuse to say the word "amputee" in favor of basically anything else. A ridiculous amount of people are under the impression that the only good story involving a disabled person is one that ends in a cure. The bar is on the floor.

Most of the harmful representation we reference in all the posts, the tropes that get repeated all the time, they are a result of not doing research and not looking a single thing up, simply not caring. Most "representation" is done from memory, literally whatever the author thinks the disability is. It's not a rare occurrence to see a disabled character and be able to tell that there wasn't even a Wikipedia article involved when creating the character, let alone actual disabled humans. Half the time the memory isn't even from a real source, it's just a different badly made character.

I can see your worries, but logically speaking, you seem to know too much to do a lot of this dumb shit. You don't have to know literally everything to show something with depth and nuance, things that most writers don't consider as an aspect of disability representation in the first place. We have a "don't just ask us 'how to write a disabled character?'" rule in our FAQ because of this - people don't expect there to be any nuance and are surprised to hear that we aren't actually a monolith. A lot of people, and I genuinely mean it, don't differentiate between disabilities. There are writers who write about their deaf characters using braille to read and their blind Japanese characters using ASL to speak. I see artists confuse mobility canes and white canes. Don't even start me on the nonsense that goes on in the realm of mentally ill characters.

If every writer did what I mentioned in the first paragraph of my reply, life would be awesome. There's a difference between a mistake in the grand scheme of things and literally not seeing disability as something worth thinking about for more than a few minutes. Like yeah, there is a chance that when reading, a reader with disability X might go "oh, the author isn't X" because there was an oversight in how the character did some activity on page 71. So what? That's bound to happen literally no matter what you write unless it's an autobiography. Toph Beifong is considered a beloved character that's still one of the best blind characters in media even though she falls into tropes and gets stuff wrong. Trying to make something absolutely perfect is counterproductive and ironically enough will result in less good representation.

You might decide to scrap your character with a facial difference because you think you shouldn't write them, but I promise you that the new indie horror game dev won't. Characters that will be the pain of my existence, made by people who couldn't give less shit, will keep being made into eternity. There's no avoiding it. There will be ninety-nine horrible characters made that might as well have had "ableism" as their character concept. If you decide to not scrap yours, we will have the 1% that was made with respect and sincerity in mind.

No one reasonably expects 100% accuracy from works of fiction, I personally expect research and respect. If you're doing that, your work will probably be at the very top of representation I've seen. Keep writing.

mod Sasza

[creations-by-chaosfay]

Slow work

My husband insisted I take the rest of the year off because I made quilt after quilt after quilt, stopping only due to pain overwhelming me, for ten months straight. We compromised with me taking November off. Though that compromise was forced due to me being dealing with an infection and the side of effects of the antibiotics, and today will be the last two doses.

I'm finally starting to get bored, much to his dismay.

He, and my doctor, both insist I reduce how much time I spend sewing everyday. For my own welfare courtesy of a long list of chronic health issues, like hEDS, chronic pain, and various other fun factors. I started the year with "gotta keep going" aka too much. So then it was reduced to a max of six hours a day, then no more than four hours a day and no more than four days a week. We've finally figured out my real max: ten hours a week, spread out however I want.

Workaholic + ADHD + multiple other disabilities =/= a good mix.

I begin physical therapy next month, specifically for my hEDS. I'll be figuring out how to unlearn some things and train my muscles to serve as splints so my joints stop dislocating. That, and finally getting the proper therapy for my left hands/wrist. The PT I received last year for this ongoing issue did not address my hypermobility. I was diagnosed in July of this year, but looking back...it was very obvious I have hEDS. Plus, the place I had PT was not a good place at all. If you live in the Springfield/Eugene region of Oregon, please avoid going to Slocum Orthopedics. My doctor told me if she had known they would be the ones to pick up the referral put in the system, she would've put in a note NOT to have them do so. Many of her patients have had nothing but poor experiences there.

If the physical therapist I'm assigned to tells me to work no more than ten hours, that's where I'll stay at. Will it slow down my work? Obviously, yes, but once I get the hang of machine quilting, it will speed up considerably. 200 hour handquilting projects will be reduced to less than fifty. At least, according to people I've spoken to who have done handquilting and machine quilting.

My intentions were to make a stack of panel quilts this month, but my body demanded otherwise. Tomorrow, I'll begin working on gifts for my ko-fi members, and then some small quick things for friends and a few family members. My baby sister (she's the youngest of us three and I'm the Eldest) has two children, and they live with my/our parents. My mother insisted I not make anything for them "because they have so much stuff already." That's five gifts not to concern myself with. Works for me!

Once I have the gifts done, of which there'll be a little a dozen, I'll turn my focus to making panel quilts using the easiest and quickest patterns that aren't boring. I'm thinking six total, all for practice, and all of them will be listed at a 25%-50% discount from what I would otherwise charge for the amount of work and supply costs. Of course, you will have the option to pay more. That will always be an option in my shop. Said quilts won't be listed until the end of January though, so don't go thinking you can hold off on purchasing them with my Yuletide coupon code.

Each quilt top will take probably ten hours each, so that's five or six weeks of just quilt tops before switching to the actual quilting. Then it may be another ten hours of quilting each one. So that's 20 hours. Let's say each panel was $18 USD, and the fabric for the borders, binding, and blocks came to $40 USD, the backing another $30 USD, and the other miscellaneous things (thread, sewing needles, rotary blade, etc) come to around $25 USD. That'll be $653 USD, and at a 50% discount, the quilt will be listed at $326.50 USD. If you're one of my members, you'll also receive an automatic 15% off that, which brings it to $277.50. I dunno about the rest of y'all, but that's more than fair.

Because I haven't gotten around to making all the giveaway prizes owed, I'll be giving the winners, and those promised a quilt for other reasons, first dibs. If none want what I've made, the quilt will be listed. If you would like to ensure you get on the list for one of these, you have a few options for how:

for one of these quilts, you'll need to spend at least $250 USD on my Throne wishlist. It can be one thing that reaches the amount, or many things combined, that reach the minimum for one of these quilts,

or help me reach my current goal posted on my Ko-fi page. It can be with a purchase from my shop or a donation. Personally, I would rather it be a purchase; space in my house is limited due to there being no closets to speak of. However, thi option puts you in the giveaway for a free quilt with no guarantee you'll win;

or become one of my Ko-fi members. This work similar to what another website has set up, but more user friendly. It's monthly support, so an automatic payment of an amount you choose. The minimum is $5 USD/month, the max is $100/USD. Look over the benefits I have listed. My member receive a postcard from me every month, and no less than two gifts over the course of the year. The gifts replace the postcard for that month. This option also has the same outcome as the second; each of my members is automatically entered into the giveaways I have, but there's no promise they'll win.

Work will be slow, and my mind is doing everything it can to make me feel ashamed about it. Workaholic mentality is something I'll be unlearning over the next several months. I just need to get myself to stop shaming myself for not being able to work at the pace abled folks can.

[weaverpop]

So... idk if this applies to Lionsword, but MK and Wukong canonically have ADHD.

Do you have any headcanons of anyone having any disabilities, mental or otherwise?

Fun fact about that! Nezha canonically can’t fly without his wheels! Everyone else can, even Jing to an extent, but Nezha can’t!

Azure is half blind in his right eye, and his arm has all sorts of nasty lighting like scars from the JE’s powers. Struggles with the pain some days, though it’s mostly better. He can’t feel his pinky or ring finger on that side tho.

Jing canonically suffers from Postpartum Depression (PPD) after having his last baby. But also, as a result from his nurising days, as well as taking care of so many kids, he develops arthritis! It’s very mild and mostly in the shoulders, he takes meds for it, but now he uses it as an excuse to not have to do things.

Muzha sometimes has seizures. A brick to the head while mortal, especially a GOLD one, will kinda fuck you up there. Thankfully he’s on meds to control them now.

Not really a disability, but Nezha sleep walks. He’s scared Jing many times this way.

Macaques right eye, unlike azure, is totally blind. He’s had to do many doctors appointments when Erlang found out bc he heard of a thing where the brain starts attacking the good eye and makes it go blind too. (True thing. Very scary)

Wukong has awful vision because of the Furnace and needs glasses. But something new they discover is… asthma. Apparently being isolated on a clean air mountain for so long opens you up to all sorts of shit in the post-industrial world. So yeah, inhaler! Also the adhd.

Tang also has asthma! He and Wukong are asthma buddies!

Mk has developed insomnia due to his persistent nightmares. Nezha being there helps, but they can’t always be together. Sandy has Mk referred to a doctor to get a prescription for meds that help him sleep. That, plus the aforementioned adhd.

Pif suffered from anorexia for the longest time. The unfair beauty standards her parents pushed on her, particularly the Queen mum, stuck with her for a long time. It wasn’t until she was told that it was the reason she kept having miscarriage after miscarriage did she force herself to get better. That’s how Redson was born.

One of Jings and azures kids is born deaf. I won’t say which one tho. :)

[pathfinderunlocked]

Narcis Devil - CR15 Devil

You're so disgusting. You should try to be more like me. You'll fail, obviously, but still, at least put in some effort.

Artwork by D_elite on Twitter.

Narcis Devil - CR 15

Standing six and a half feet tall and wearing only a cape and jewelry is an attractive horned man with gray skin and glowing red eyes. He looks at you smugly.

XP 51,200 LE Medium outsider (devil, evil, extraplanar, lawful) Init +12 Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +23

DEFENSE

AC 28, touch 16, flat-footed 22 (+6 Dex, +12 natural) hp 199 (19d10+95) Fort +13, Ref +21, Will +17 DR 10/good Immune fire, poison Resist acid 10, cold 10 SR 26

OFFENSE

Speed 30 ft., fly 40 ft. (perfect) Melee 2 claws +27 (2d8+7 plus 1d8 bleed plus scar (DC ) Space 5 ft.; Reach 5 ft. Special Attacks gaze, touch of irony, waxen image, withering Spell-Like Abilities (CL 15th; concentration +26) Constant—detect scrying, seek thoughts (DC 24, thoughts concerning self only, see text), true seeing At will—charm monster (DC 25), enter image, mirage arcana (DC 26), mirror image, persistent image (DC 26), resist energy, scorching ray (3 rays, ranged touch +27), smug narcissism (DC 26) 3/day—dimensional anchor (DC 25), phantasmal killer (DC 25), scrying 1/day—dominate monster (DC 30), geas/quest, greater false vision, summon (level 5, 2 bone devils 75%) 1/month—simulacrum (self only, cannot have more than one)

STATISTICS

Str 24, Dex 26, Con 20, Int 16, Wis 19, Cha 32 Base Atk +19; CMB +26; CMD 44 Feats Blind-Fight, Combat Reflexes, Deceitful, Great Fortitude, Improved Initiative, Improved Great Fortitude, Iron Will, Lightning Reflexes, Persuasive, Weapon Focus (claw) Skills Acrobatics +21, Bluff +43, Diplomacy +43, Disguise +23, Fly +12, Intimidate +43, Knowledge (local, nobility, planes) +12, Perception +26, Perform (oratory) +15, Sense Motive +12; Racial Modifiers +8 Bluff, +8 Diplomacy, +8 Intimidate Languages Abyssal, Celestial, Common, Draconic, Elven, Infernal; tongues, telepathy 100 ft.

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Gaze (Su) Creatures within 30 feet that gaze upon a narcis devil must succeed on a DC 30 Will save or be unwilling to physically harm him. Affected creatures may not willingly inflict hit point damage, physical ability score damage/drain, or diseases to the narcis devil, nor any other harmful effect that would leave a physical mark. They may inflict other harmful effects, and are not compelled to prevent others from attacking the narcis devil. This gaze is a mind-affecting charm effect. The save DC is Charisma-based. The narcis devil can enable or disable this gaze effect as a free action.

Seek Thoughts (Sp) A narcis devil is permanently affected by seek thoughts, as a constant spell-like ability, but can only use this to notice creatures thinking about the narcis devil.

Scar (Su) A creature damaged by a narcis devil's claw attacks must succeed on a DC 26 Fortitude save or be scarred, as the witch hex. The save DC is Strength-based.

These scars do not interfere with the target's senses or prevent it from using abilities, but may affect social interactions. The narcis devil can use its Waxen Image and Withering hexes on the scarred target at a range of up to 1 mile, and is considered to have a body part from the target for the purpose of scrying and similar divination spells. The scars persist through disguises and shapechanging.

The narcis devil can withdraw this hex from a target as a move action at any range. The number of supernatural scars the narcis devil can maintain at once is equal to its Intelligence bonus (typically 3); once the narcis devil reaches this limit, it must remove the scar from a current victim in order to mark another. Effects that remove curses can remove the scar.

Touch of Irony (Su) A narcis devil can make a touch attack (typically with +26 to hit) to immediately transform a living creature into a walrus for 10 minutes. A successful DC 30 Fortitude save negates the transformation. This effect otherwise functions as beast shape II. A creature who successfully saves is not subject to the same narcis devil's touch of irony for 24 hours. If the target transforms into a walrus, it must also succeed on a DC 30 Will save to retain its personality. On a failed save, the target is affected as if it failed its secondary Will save against a baleful polymorph spell. The effect can be negated by break enchantment (DC 26 — using the narcis devil's caster level), but cannot be dispelled. The save DC is Charisma-based.

Waxen Image (Su) A narcis devil can spend a full-round action to create a crude and unnerving wax duplicate of a creature it can see within 30 feet, or one affected by its Scar ability. Once the image is complete, the subject must make a Will save (DC 22). If the subject fails, the narcis devil gains a small measure of control over the creature. Whenever the narcis devil exercises this control, the creature receives a new Will save to end the effect. This effect occurs on the narcis devil's turn and does not impede the creature's actions on its own turn. The narcis devil can use the waxen image a number of times equal to its Intelligence modifier (typically 3) before it melts.

As a standard action, the narcis devil can cause the subject to do any one of the following things: move up to the creature's speed in any direction, attack itself once with any weapon in hand (this attack automatically hits), lay down on the ground, or drop anything held. Alternatively, the narcis devil can spend one of its uses to simply torture the image, causing the creature to be both sickened and staggered on its turn. As soon as the creature has succeeded on a saving throw against this effect, it is immune to it for 24 hours. This is an enchantment (compulsion) effect. The save DC is Intelligence-based.

Withering (Su) As a standard action, the narcis devil can cause a creature within 30 feet, or one affected by its Scar hex, to age rapidly, empowering itself in the process.

The target ages to the next age category (adult to middle-aged, and so on). The narcis devil gains 1d10+19 temporary hit points and a +2 enhancement bonus to either Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution for a number of hours equal to its Intelligence modifier (typically 3 hours). The aging effect lasts for 19 hours.

A creature cannot be aged past venerable age by this hex, and it can attempt a Fortitude save (DC 22) to negate the effect altogether. Once a creature has successfully saved against the withering hex, it cannot be affected by the same narcis devil's withering hex again. The save DC is Intelligence-based.

[forabeatofadrum]

Thank you @cutestkilla for the tag!

I have some things to say! First off, have six sentences of Matt being a mess. @cutestkilla actually came up with this idea:

The polecat must be amazing at dodging, because it manages to avoid every spell. My spells are erratic and I hit parts of the office. Fuck, I am so fired after this. After I don’t know how long, the door opens again. “Miss Possibelf?” Simon Snow pokes his head in. “Simon Snow, save me!” I yell pathetically.

I actually have, uh, almost everything finished! Literally only chapter 5 is unfinished, but everything else plus the epilogue is done. I will probably tweak some things every now and then, but the fic has been written. Apart from chapter 5.

Secondly, not officially fic related, but y'all gotta see this fanart of Klaine at Kongresni trg, made by @esilher! I will get back to Ljubili se... one day. Look, Matty Chris D. just pulled focus! Also I told Esilher that I need to write Kurt and Blaine going back to Slovenia just so they can ice skate there. I never knew it was a thing, otherwise I definitely would've added it in Ljubim te, when they were actually in Ljubljana.

AND LASTLY, I, uh, suddenly and totally out of nowhere wrote 1.7K words for my Marlie fic that I started in 2022. Wack. I did scrap everything I had beforehand, but that's fine. I just got hit by the need to finish this fic and look I just miss Class. I know it was a failed Doccy Whomst spin-off BUT I LOVE CLASS. Woe, Marlie fic be upon ye! So keep an eye out for that one as well, I say, to my... readers? Do people still read Marlie fic?

And now, the weather: @quizasvivamos @coffeegleek @caramelcoffeeaddict @raenestee @tectonicduck @nightimedreamersworld @urban-sith @thnxforknowingme @captain-aralias @you-remind-me-of-the-babe @cerriddwenluna @bookish-bogwitch @confused-bi-queer @that-disabled-princess @special-bc-ur-part-of-it @larkral @cutestkilla ​ @wellbelesbian ​ @artsyunderstudy ​ @martsonmars ​ @facewithoutheart ​ @shrekgogurt @rockitmans @bitbybitwrites @whatevertheweather @theotherhufflepuff @shame-is-a-wasted-emotion @esilher @kurtsascot @blackberrysummerblog @nightimedreamersghost